Ken Pritchard speaks about his new commercial and residential space as construction continues on renovating the old warehouse off of Esst Main Street.Standing in a cavernous empty room in the old Office Coordinators Inc. warehouse on East Main Street, Ken Pritchard surveyed the high ceilings, tall windows, exposed beams and sighed.
“It’s painful,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest and shifting his weight from leg to leg.
The plan was to develop the downtown Chattanooga space into loft-style condominiums five years ago. But those plans, and the rest of the building, are still empty.
“The whole economic downturn — I suppose we were victim to that,” Pritchard, of Pritchard Properties LLC, said. “The funding institutions in town weren’t willing to look at anything that wasn’t fully leased. Anything that had any hint of speculation involved, they had no interest in.”
Pritchard and his wife Carla spent $550,000 on the 30,000-square-foot building in December 2007. They dubbed it “Clearstory” and made plans to develop an energy-efficient mix of office and residential space.